Radio (2003)

Director:

Michael Tollin

Writer (WGA):

Mike Rich (written by)

Release Date:

24 October 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Sport

Tagline:

His courage made them champions.

Plot:

The story of a high school coach and the developmentally challenged man whom he took under his wing.

Plot Keywords:

Coach | Radio | High School | South Carolina | Mother Son Relationship

Awards:

3 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Cuba Gooding Jr.	...	Radio
Ed Harris	...	Coach Jones
Alfre Woodard	...	Principal Daniels
S. Epatha Merkerson	...	Maggie
Brent Sexton	...	Honeycutt
Chris Mulkey	...	Frank
Sarah Drew	...	Mary Helen
Riley Smith	...	Johnny
Patrick Breen	...	Tucker
Debra Winger	...	Linda
Bill Roberson	...	Del
Kenneth H. Callender	...	Don
Michael Harding	...	Irv the Cop
Charles Garren	...	Clive
Rebecca Koon	...	Waitress

MPAA:

Rated PG for mild language and thematic elements.

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:L | Brazil:12 | Netherlands:AL | South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Canada:PG | Germany:o.Al. | Norway:7 | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:7 | UK:PG | USA:PG (certificate #39542)

Filming Locations:

South Carolina, USA

Company:

Revolution Studios

Goofs:

Continuity: When Coach Jones goes to Radio's house after he's arrested and brings him food he's shown with two fries in his hand, in the wide shot, as coach Jones tells him he did a good thing. The next close up, Radio is pictured with only one French fry in his hand.

Quotes:

Radio: Whe' mah pie!

Movie Connections:

Features "Charlie's Angels" (1976)

Soundtrack:

We're An American Band

Almost Too Good To Be True

This was unusual: a modern-day film which was ultra-nice. In fact, it was so nice it bordered on being too hard to believe in parts. As I watching this based-on-a-real-life story, I was thinking, "nobody is this nice, this tolerant." Mainly, I was referring to Ed Harris' role as "Coach Jones." I think they went a little overboard on his character, but that's better than the reverse: showing him worse than what he was in real life. Odd to see Harris playing the role, too, since he has a long resume of playing nasty, profane characters.

Anyway, I never complain about a nice, feel-good film, and it is nice to see a bunch of well- meaning, kind people. Those folks direct their friendship, love and compassion to "James Kennedy," better known as "Radio," a mentally slow high school kid played by Cuba Gooding Jr. The story takes place in the mid 1970s in South Carolina. Gooding does a nice job with the role, too. However, like Sean Penn's role of a mentally-challenged man in "I Am Sam," an hour-and-a-half of a character like this is plenty. After that, the loudness of those guys gets tiresome to hear.

Note: It was interesting in one of the documentaries on this DVD to find out that, in real life, in took years for "Radio" to make his transformation, not months as shown in the film.